Rescue Team Skeleton Key
by PhoenixAZ
Summary: I know there's been a large influx of Mystery Dungeon fanfics lately. Follow a newly turned Meowth named Felix and his Rescue Team partner, Chuchino the Pikachu, as they find their way through missions and a mysterious fairy tale.
1. Questionnaire

Now I'm sure you've heard this tale many times before. You've heard of a brave human that was turned into a pokèmon and saved the world, while being pursued by other teams who thought he was an evil human under a curse. I know you've heard this story before. Well, here it is again. But I promise, this story is different than the others. This story starts years ago, in a small wooded area...

* * *

"Now, lets see what pokèmon you should be." Echoed a mysterious voice. All was black, so there must have been lots of space to echo in.

"What do you mean?" came another, meeker, voice.

"Before you enter the portal into the World of Pokèmon, I have several questions." Came the echoing voice, "I want you to answer them truthfully."

"Ok." Came the meek voice.

"First Question. You are suddenly locked in a pitch black room. What do you do?"

"Kick the door."

"Second Question. You are offered a choice of two presents, big and small. Which one do you take?"

"The small present."

"Third Question. Do you like pranks?"

"No."

"Fourth Question. There's a person you like, but there's no opportunity to get close. What do you do?"

"Might say hello..."

"Fifth Question. There is a scream from behind a door. What do you do?"

"Probably start screaming too."

"Sixth Question. Your friend is being bullied. What do you do?"

"Face up to the bully."

"Seventh Question. Do you suddenly run out of things to do?"

"Yeah."

"Eighth and Final Question. Are you male or female?"

"Male."

"Good. You appear to be the quirky type. People consider you an eccentric who does things at your own pace. You never break tempo. Your carefree nature makes you attractive. But you also happen to be somewhat childish...You are fickle and cause problems for the people who have to go along with you. Maybe people are even upset with you for being so fickle. If you realize how selfishly you're behaving, try to think before you do anything rash."

"Hey!"

"A quirky person like you should be...Meowth!" And with that everything faded into nothingness.


	2. Where Am I?

Where am I? It's quiet. And dark.

Am I dreaming this? Maybe, but my entire body aches. I thought you couldn't hurt in dreams.

I feel a pleasant breeze. It smells like pine needles. Am I in a forest?

...I hear a voice from somewhere...I don't recognize it.

I wonder who it is...

"Excuse me."

Who is it?

"Please wake up."

Wake up? So, am I asleep?

"Come on, wake up!"

"Wha-"

"Oh good! You're finally awake! Great!"


	3. First Mission: Rescue the Caterpie!

Deep in the Tiny Woods a small bundle of white and brown fur lay unmoving on the forest floor. A humming sound echoed through the nearby trees, as a small yellow-furred rodent entered the clearing.

"Huh?" the Pikachu said, noticing the furry bundle, "What's this? A pokèmon in need of help?" He walked over to the cat-like pokèmon.

"Excuse me." The Pikachu began softly. The other pokèmon didn't move.

"Please wake up." The Pikachu said, slightly louder. The other pokèmon still didn't move.

"Come on, wake up!" The Pikachu yelled at the top of its lungs. The other pokèmon jerked into consciousness.

"Wha-!" It grunted as it sat bolt upright.

"Oh good! You're finally awake! Great!" The Pikachu said, smiling happily, "But what's a Meowth like you doing so far away from the Energetic Forest?"

_'When did Pikachus learn to talk human?'_ Wondered the Meowth, sleepily.

"Meowth?" the Meowth asked, sounding groggy, "'M not a Meowth." The Pikachu gave him a weird look.

"Yeah, you are. Unless you're a Ditto. But I don't think so." The Pikachu said, concerned about the odd Meowth, "Come and see for yourself." The Pikachu led the Meowth to a nearby stream. Leaning over, the crystal clear water, the Meowth saw his reflection and froze, staring for a good few minutes before yowling loudly and leaping backwards.

"I'm a MEOWTH!!" He shrieked, "How? I...wait...the voice!"

"What voice?" The Pikachu asked, giving the Meowth an odd look.

"Before you woke me up I had a dream! There was a voice and it was asking me questions! It said I was a Quirky Type, whatever that means, and then told me I should be a Meowth!" The Meowth explained, frantic.

"Oh..." The Pikachu said, a little confused by this, "So, what were you before your dream?" The Meowth paused, thinking hard. An image flashed into his mind of a young boy, in his early teens, with pale skin and white and brown hair.

"I think..." The Meowth started, "I think I was human!"

"Wow!" The Pikachu cried, "That would be so cool, being human. Were you really human?"

"I think so..." The Meowth said, unsure of where the Pikachu was going with this. The Pikachu noticed the odd look the Meowth was giving him, and cleared his throat, calming down.

"Anyway, allow me to introduce myself." He said, extending a paw, "My name's Chuchino. I'm a Pikachu, as you can see." The Meowth took Chuchino's paw, shaking it slowly, still unsure.

"M' name's Felix. I guess I'm a Meowth now." He replied.

"A pleasure to meet you, Felix." Chuchino replied, smiling wide. His smile was disarming, and Felix relaxed, smiling back.

"A pleasure to meet you as well."

"HELP!" echoed a voice through the woods, "PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!" Both Chuchino and Felix jumped at the loud voice.

"Someone's in trouble!" Chuchino said, "We should help!" He began to run in the direction of the cry. Felix tried to follow behind on his hind legs, but found running too difficult on only two legs, switching to four. Soon he caught up with Chuchino in another clearing.

"What's the problem?" Chuchino was asking a large Butterfree female.

"My baby!" she cried, compound eyes welling up with tears somehow, "He fell in that hole, and when I tried to get him out some pokèmon attacked me!"

"Attacked you?!" Felix cried, "Why?"

"I don't know, there was a small earthquake an hour or two ago, it might have riled them up." The Butterfree sniffled, "Please save my baby Caterpie!"

"We will." Chuchino replied, voice full of determination, "Come on Felix, you want to help?"

"Sure." Felix said, eyes narrowed in the same determination as Chuchino. The two walked to the edge of the rift, nodded to each other, and then jumped. They fell for a few seconds. Felix was the first to land, on all four feet as cats normally do. Unfortunately, Chuchino landed on top of him, knocking Felix to the ground.

"Oof!" Chuchino grunted, quickly getting off his friend, "Sorry Felix, I misjudged my trajectory."

"Urgh." Felix groaned, cracking his back loudly, "I never thought getting hit by a Pikachu would hurt so much."

"Let's get going." Chuchino said, looking to a set of stair-like rocks nearby, "We should be able to use those to go down to the next level. Caterpie is probably at the lowest level. Especially if he fell down that." Chuchino pointed to the large rift that stretched like a mouth next to the two. Suddenly, behind Chuchino a pokèmon appeared. A Pidgey, which opened its beak and lunged at Chuchino.

"Look out!" Felix cried, shoving Chuchino out of the way and meeting the Pidgey's face with his unsheathed claws. Three narrow but deep slices opened on the brown bird's face, and it flapped squawking off into the darkness.

"Hey thanks!" Chuchino said, heading towards the stairs, "We should keep our eyes open for wild pokèmon attacks like that as we keep going." Felix nodded, looking at his claws, sheathing and unsheathing them. It was a very odd feeling.

The two headed down level after level, running into a few Wurmples and a Pidgey or two. They were able to scare most of them off with one hit. They had found Oran Berries, Pecha Berries, and Blast Seeds galore. However, still no Caterpie.

"Wait." Felix said, stopping Chuchino with one paw, ears twitching, "Do you hear that?" Chuchino stopped and listened.

"Yeah, it sounds like someone crying!" Chuchino cried, "It's coming from the stairs, I think Caterpie is one level down!" The two rushed for the stairs, and after much pushing, shoving, and falling down stairs, they were laying in a heap in front of a bawling Caterpie.

"DON'T HURT ME!" The Caterpie cried loudly, bawling even harder.

"Relax!" Chuchino said, "We're not here to hurt you, we're here to get you out of here."

"Yeah, your mother Butterfree sent us." Felix added, desperately trying to calm down the distraught insect.

"Really?" Caterpie said, sniffling, "Momma sent you?"

"Yeah, she said that her baby fell down here and she couldn't get down to come and get you." Chuchino explained, "So we volunteered. Come on, let's get you out of here." The two older pokèmon led the still sniffling Caterpie out of the hole, and into the arms of his overjoyed mother.

"I can't thank you enough!" Butterfree cried, leading Caterpie back home.

"It's getting late, we'd better head to the town." Chuchino said wearily, looking up through the trees at the purple, sunset sky.

"You have a town?" Felix asked.

"Yeah, I'll show you." Chuchino said, taking Felix's paw and leading him off out of the forest. Soon they arrived in a small, quaint village that seemed to be made entirely out of leaves, vines, stones, and mud.

"Wow!" Felix breathed, watching with great interest as pokèmon went along the streets, doing jobs and errands that you would normally picture humans doing.

"Hey." Chuchino said softly, "D'you think...d'you think you'd want to...um...start a Pokèmon Rescue Team with me?"

"A Pokèmon Rescue Team?" Felix asked, confused.

"Yeah, we'd go around helping Pokèmon in trouble, rescuing them or escorting them or delivering items. Like we did with Caterpie." Chuchino explained.

"Sure!" Felix replied, smiling wide, "Why not?"

"Really!?" Chuchino cried happily. Felix nodded.

"I'll help. Sounds like fun!" Felix added. Chuchino grabbed him by the paw.

"Alright!" the yellow rodent cried, "You can come stay with me, at my house. You have nowhere else, and it'll be our Rescue Team Base, so we should both be there once the mail starts pouring in and such." And with that, the hyperactive electric mouse dragged Felix off by the paw to a small house just outside the village, where they talked well into the night about nothing in particular and fell asleep, dreaming of the adventures they'd have.


	4. Second Mission: Trouble Brewing

"Hey, excuse me?"

A small, familiar voice echoed through Felix's unconscious mind, waking him from a deep sleep.

"Wha?" the groggy Meowth moaned, uncurling and stretching before heading to the door. Out in front of Chuchino's house was the Caterpie they had rescued the day before.

"Hi!" it chirped happily, "We were so glad to be back together that my mother and I forgot to give you a reward for helping out. We forgot to even introduce ourselves. My name's Papillion, and my mom is named Liberty. My mom sent me with these." It pushed three berries ahead of it, a Pecha Berry, a Rawst Berry, and an Oran Berry.

"Thanks, but you didn't have to." Felix replied, taking the berries. The Caterpie didn't listen, just sauntering away...if it could do that on those kind of legs.

"I also wanted to say that someday when I get older, I'm going to join your rescue team to truly pay you back!" Papillion called back over its...shoulder?

"What was that all about?" Chuchino asked groggily as he came out of the Team Base.

"It was that Caterpie. Papillion, from yesterday, giving us a reward for rescuing him." Felix explained, stifling a yawn. Chuchino nodded sleepily and headed over to the plain mailbox that was just outside the house. He pulled out some papers that had been stuffed inside.

"Hey look. They already sent us our Rescue Team stuff." Chuchino said, handing Felix an odd looking badge. It looked like a plastic Easter egg with wings. The top half was white, while the bottom was pink.

"Do we get to name our team?" Felix asked, examining the odd badge.

"Yeah, you got any ideas?" Chuchino asked.

"Why not Team Skeleton Key?" Felix replied.

"Skeleton Key?" Chuchino asked, incredulously. Felix nodded, pulling a small silver key off a red ribbon that Chuchino hadn't noticed around his neck.

"Oh, I see." Chuchino responded, "Can I have one?"

"We'll have to find another key, but I think I have enough ribbon to make you one." Felix said, leaning over Chuchino's shoulder to read the note, "So, we start at Normal Rank and have to complete missions to gain points and go up a rank. That should be fun!"

"Yeah, and now we've got a storage box at Kangaskhan Storage in town, as well as our own Bank Account." Chuchino explained, grabbing all the items they had found when rescuing Caterpie and packing them into a small messenger bag, "Let's go store this stuff. Then we can come back here and wait for some missions." Felix nodded, following Chuchino as they left for the village.

The village was much more lively than it had been the night before. Pokèmon were everywhere, talking to each other, shopping, visiting the bank, and visiting the storage building. Chuchino led Felix carefully through the crowds of pokèmon, being very cautious because there was a great number of pokèmon there that could easily kill the two by stepping on them. Felix found it slightly easier, with practice, to walk on his hind legs but remained mostly on all fours to avoid balance issues. Eventually they got through the crowd and stood before the large building that was labeled 'Kangaskhan Storage'.

"Why hello there, darlin's!" came a kind voice from above the two, "What can I do f'r y'all?" Felix wondered exactly how a Kangaskhan could get a southern accent, but Chuchino interrupted his thoughts.

"We're a new Rescue Team, Miss Conztanza." He said politely, "We need to store a few things. Our team name is 'Team Skeleton Key'."

"Ah, yes." Conztanza said, rustling around in a shelf under her front counter, "Here y'are! Just made it up f'r ya this mornin'. Welcome to the job, dears." She pulled out two small scraps of cloth and handed them to the two.

"What are these?" Felix asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"They're Pecha Scarves, dear," the Kangaskhan explained, smiling kindly, "Ya wear 'em and they stop ya from gettin' poisoned. There's lotsa other scarves out there with dif'rent effects." Felix nodded in understanding, tying the scarf around his neck over his key collar. He then pinned his Rescue Team Badge onto the scarf as he saw Chuchino doing.

"Here you go ma'am." Chuchino said to Conztanza, handing her the Rawst and Pecha berries they had gotten from Caterpie. Shetook the berries and placed them into the Team Skeleton Key box they had been given.

"Thank you very much." Chuchino called as he led Felix over to another building. Before they could arrive, however, two lizard-like Pokèmon popped up in front of them, startling Felix and causing the unfortunate scratch-cat to jump almost twice his height into the air.

"Hey, guys." Chuchino said calmly, waving at the two Kecleon, for that is what they were.

"Why hello Chuchino..." the purple Kecleon said.

"...what a wonderful day, yes?" continued the green Kecleon.

"It sure is," Chuchino replied, smiling, "We just became a Rescue Team. Guys, this is Felix, he's new around here. Felix, these are the Kecleon Brothers. The purple one is Phyros, and the green one is Irving." The two Kecleon nodded amicably to Felix as they shook hands (...er...paws?) with the Meowth.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Felix." Phyros said, shaking Felix's right paw.

"Indeed, it is a pleasure as my brother says." Irving added, shaking Felix's left paw.

"It's, uh, nice to meet you guys too." Felix responded, feeling a bit overwhelmed as his paws went numb from the overenthusiastic Kecleon brothers. Luckily, Chuchino rescued his partner from having his arms shaken off.

"Excuse us, boys, we've got to go open a bank account, if you don't mind." And with a cheery wave, eagerly returned by the Kecleon brothers, Chuchino led Felix off towards another building, this one with a sign that read 'Felicity Bank'.

"Hello boys," came a smooth voice from behind the desk, "What can I do for you today?" Felix looked up to find a very sleek Persian eyeing them with interest.

"Hi Felicity!" Chuchino greeted her, then gestured to Felix, "This is Felix. He's new here." Felix blushed as the pretty Persian looked him up and down.

"Well, well." She purred, smiling, "Named for luck as well, I see. Welcome to town Felix. It's nice to meet you."

"Y-yeah, thanks, F-felicity. N-nice to meet you t-too." Felix managed to stammer, the blush in his furry cheeks rising. She was really pretty...

"Anyway, Felicity, we'd like to open an account for our Rescue Team."

"Oh, you finally made one!" Felicity replied, her face lighting up, "Good for you! You've been talking about making a Rescue Team since you were just a little Pichu!"

"Yeah, lucky me that Felix here just happened to agree." Chuchino chuckled and Felicity joined in musically, pulling a small drawer out of one of the rather large vaults behind her.

"All right, then. Here's your vault drawer. How much would you like to deposit?" Felicity asked. Chuchino pulled a few of the odd-looking coins that he and Felix had found in Tiny Woods, which is what Chuchino had said the place where Papillion fell was called, and put them in. Felicity did a quick count and nodded, placing the drawer back into the vault and locking it.

"How much was that?" Felix asked, curious as to how the currency of the pokèmon world worked.

"That was about 95 Pokè." Felicity replied. Chuchino thanked Felicity and the two pokèmon rescuers headed back for their base. Once there, Chuchino gave Felix a sly smile.

"What?" Felix asked nervously, not liking the smile on his friend's face.

"You like Felicity."

"What!? No I don't! I mean, she's pretty and all, but she's a pokèmon!"

"Well, so are you, now!"

"But I might not be forever! Besides, it still feels weird!"

"Well, I guess it's all right. Plus she's already got a boyfriend."

"She does?"

"Don't sound so disappointed. Yeah, she's dating a Delcatty named Cal." Chuchino responded teasingly, "Besides, you're around my age or something, right? I'm only 14."

"I think..." Felix replied, thinking as hard as he could, "I think I'm 12." Chuchino gave him an odd look.

"What do you mean 'I think'?" the Pikachu asked, looking almost concerned.

"I can't really remember much about being human." Felix replied, "I remember that I was human, that my name is Felix, and that I'm 12 years old. But I can't remember any family, any friends, anything about my actual life."

"That's horrible..." Chuchino began, but the conversation was cut short by a loud flapping of wings. The two looked at each other and raced outside just in time to see a Pelipper fly away from their mailbox.

"Does he usually come more than once a day?" Felix asked Chuchino. The electric mouse shook his head in wonder, then rushed to the mailbox and threw it open, fishing around frantically inside to grab the new delivery. Retracting his paw, he opened the envelope and began to read what it said.

"BZZBZZBZZZZT. Please help me. BZZBZZ. My Magnemite friends are stuck together. BZZ. But there are only two. Not enough for a Magneton. BZZ. They are stuck in Thunderwave Cave. BZZBZZ. Please help. BZZBZZBZZZZT." Chuchino read. Felix gave him a questioning look, but Chuchino just shrugged and handed the letter to the cat. Sure enough, it was all there, word-for-word and BZZ-for-BZZ.

"What kind of pokèmon writes this way?" Felix asked, giving the note a disbelieving glance.

"Magnemites usually. Magnetons would have written in plural pronouns and possessives." Chuchino explained. Felix thought about it for a second and then realized that this made sense somehow, considering the robotic nature and electric type of Magnemites. Then he wondered exactly _how_ a Magnemite _or_ a Magneton would write, considering they had no hands. He gave up on that train of thought when it became too weird.

"So...what do we do now?" Felix asked.

"We accept, of course!" Chuchino said, determination shining from his eyes as he grabbed the team's item bag and Felix's paw, dragging the unfortunate scratch-cat off towards Thunderwave Cave.


End file.
